The American journal of managed care
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of psychiatric follow-up frequency on outcomes and waiting times.
This study determined whether naturally occurring but significantly different outpatient follow-up frequencies are associated with clinical outcomes and service waiting times. ⋯ Although variations in appointment frequencies do not appear to have a major impact on clinical outcomes, they could be managed to achieve significant improvements in the accessibility of the clinic.
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We examined the association between electronic health information sharing and repeat imaging in readmissions among older adults with and without Alzheimer disease (AD). ⋯ Despite substantial investment, HIEs as currently deployed and used are not associated with decreased odds of repeat imaging in readmissions.
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To examine the relationship between preventive dental visits (PDVs) and medical expenditures while mitigating bias from unobserved confounding factors. ⋯ This is the first study to present estimates with causal inference from a quasi-experimental study of the effect of PDVs on overall medical expenditures. We observed that prior- or same-year PDVs were not related to overall medical or pharmacy expenditures.
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For patients with asthma who remain symptomatic on a medium-dose inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2 agonist, addition of a long-acting muscarinic antagonist as a supplementary controller is a recommended option. However, real-world data on the characteristics and treatment patterns of these patients are limited. This study described the demographics and clinical characteristics of new users of single- or multiple-inhaler triple therapy and treatment patterns preceding triple-therapy initiation. ⋯ In real-world practice, triple therapy is often utilized following other asthma controller medication use. High disease burden, as evidenced by substantial use of rescue medications and continued asthma-related exacerbations, suggests that patients may not have achieved adequate asthma control prior to triple-therapy initiation.